Activities App & Exercise ring

I think it's linked to you as an individual, and based on things such as how often you exercise etc.

It needs to be 30 minutes where you heart rate is raised. If you go to the gym regularly then the effort needed to get your 30 minutes will be different to someone else.

In this instance, the walk might have raised your girlfriend's heart rate, but not yours.

 

I'm starting to wonder the same. My wife seems to clock Exercise much easier than I do as well. We took a long (not so brisk) walk together yesterday and had wildly different results in the Exercise area. We did not do an start an Activity however.

We compared our stats after the walk and while she had 1000+ more steps than me (she's a foot shorter so that explains it) our distance was consistent. But... that Exercise ring was very different. She clocked 26 minutes, I clocked 3 minutes. I can only imagine it also takes heart rate into account and perhaps I'm in better shape than her so I didn't peak above whatever heart rate Apple has deemed as being "exercise".

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You beat me to it. I think you're absolutely correct.

 

What software are you guys on? Both 1.0.1? If she is on 1.0.0 and you are on 1.0.1 that might explain it. Apple all but disabled the heart rate sensor in 1.0.1 unless you are in Workout app. So it might have never realized you were taking that brisk walk and elevating your heart rate.